eliothfandomcom-20200214-history
Adventure 2 - Brightwater
Brightwater Docking and the Port Authority *upon approaching land the group decides to cautiously advance to within visible distance *they can see two figures on the dock who seem to be waving them in *they weigh anchor and leave the warforged to guard the ship while Sailorcutter and Immeral scout out the town. *The two are greeted by Davic who appears to be in charge but is somewhat laidback, and Brattin his assistant henceforth known as Dipshit. *Sailorcutter claims that they are merchants on business, and Davic promptly asks them for their merchant documents, of which they do not have. *Not having any they say that they are still on the ship and will return with them when they bring the ship to port, Davic falls for the bluff, welcomes them to Brightwater and points them in the direction of the tavern *They wander around the town a bit, entering a few shops and asking around for work. On their way out of the General store, Sailorcutter steals a fine cloak. Obtaining Documents *Eventually they make their way to the Green Tankard Tavern, which appears to be a popular location for retiring townspeople. *They approach the halfling bartender Milo, they assume he is crafty and can obtain false documents for them *They ask for drinks and sit in the tavern to wait and observe. Sailorcutter sat in the corner to meditate. *Once the bar slows down, townsfolk begin to empty the tavern and Milo approaches Sailorcutter and tells him its last call. *They leave the bar and wait outside for him to finish locking up. Once they stop hearing movement they attempt to break in *Immeral Fey steps into the bar and tries to open the door, its locked. Sailorcutter attempts to pick the lock and succeeds. *they briefly searched the tavern, but make their way to the back where they assume that Milo is hiding. *Opening the door and approaching the bed, Sailorcutter places his dagger on Milo’s throat waking him. *They proceed to ask if he knew anywhere they could obtain false merchant documents. He claims he does not. *Through intimidation and threats, they reach a ‘deal’ where Milo get them their documents by the following night and they might spare him. And after swearing him to silence, they depart. Killing time and exploring Brightwater *The two proceed to explore the town, casing various shops for their planned sacking. They wind up at a temple, there is one human in robes standing at the altar reading from some large books. *Immeral decides to distract him while Sailorcutter attempts to sneak past and search for valuables *Brother Griffon greets Immeral who proceeds to make small talk, feigning interest in the religion as Sailorcutter approaches *Sailorcutter makes it up to the stairwell and ascends to the attic, where he finds musty books and dusty linens *When he returns, and attempts to make his way back across to the basement stairs he is noticed by Brother Griffon who greets him as well. *They continue to ask questions of him about the religion. He turns out to not be very informative. They did discover the he is a follower of Silvanus the Treefather, but followers of other benign deities are welcome to worship there *They leave the temple and make their way further into town. They pass a more pristine house, who they assume belongs to the Town leader Lady Moonfire, and consider cleaning it out, but notice that it appears heavily guarded and would require a more coordinated effort. *en route to return to the south square to meditate, a Dwarf stumbles out of the general store and falls flat on his face *he promptly picks himself up and dusts himself off. they approach him, and after some choice words they all depart, although in the same direction, toward the north square. The Raid on Brightwater *Upon reaching the north square, the dwarf peals off to go ask around in the tavern, Sailorcutter and Immeral. *At this time there are townsfolk and merchants mingling about the square. *Then suddenly, Part of the north wall explodes, and several goblins scurry into Brightwater attacking anyone in sight. With several smaller goblins in front, two larger ones wielding javelins and one leader in the back. *They kill a few townsfolk, and a few are killed by the group. *A few of the goblins make their way across the square and attempt to break into Garwan’s Curiosity shop, first trying the door then smashing the window, two goblins enter and proceed to rummage through the shop and appear to be searching for something *As the fight continues, the goblins in the shop emerge and are swiftly ended by Sailorcutter, who quickly searches the corpse. *Eventually the group manages to kill off the rest of the attackers, and Immeral searches the Leader’s corpses. *As the dust settles, Garwan emerges from his shop, shocked. The group asks him if anything was taken. He believes that it may have been the Totem that was recently brought to them, he cant seem to find it amongst the mess, but suggests asking Curuvar about it. Investigation of the Attack *Sailorcutter and Immeral return to the well to rest and the Dwarf goes to the Tankard to find Curuvar. *When he approaches the door is locked, and after significant knocking a distraught halfling greets him from beyond the door. He makes certain that his guest is not a drow before letting him in. *The dwarf asks about Curuvar an eccentric wizard, and the Halfling lets him know that he is a regular patron of the Tankard *Eventually Curuvar shows up, and is initially reluctant to divulge any information, but as soon as the goblins are mentioned he opens up slightly. He is almost certain that they were after the horn totem, which he was studying recently at Garwan’s. He mentions that their camp in in the Dire Wood to the North. He sayas that the goblins hold the totem as some sort of divine symbol. *The Dwarf asks if Curuvar knows anything about the Amulet of Fuckidunno, which he replies he does not. But he knows who to ask about it and suggests that if the dwarf can go to the goblin camp and recover the matching Skull totem, that he may be able to help him with his amulet. *While the Dwarf is in the tavern, Sailorcutter is approached by the town patrol for questioning. The guard kicks his boot to wake him, asking what went on, after some heated comments, Immeral reaches into the well and tosses half a goblin corpse at the guards feet. Making their point that they did the guards job defending the town. The guard reluctantly expresses thanks and moves on to assess damage. *The dwarf goes next door to the inn and rents a room. Revisiting the Bartender *Immeral and Sailorcutter wait in the alleyway behind the Tankard tavern for the crowd to die down. Once it is late they try to regain access to the tavern. Peering through the rear window they cannot see the bartender inside his room. *Immeral fey steps to the roof of the building across the road, but is noticed, by a guard and talked off the roof, before returning to the alley. *Sailorcutter walks around the other side of the tavern and notices Milo standing out front, under torchlight, holding papers. *Milo is noticeably frightened when he notices Sailorcutter and holds out the papers desperately. *Sailorcutter points his crossbow at him and motions him to approach. Milo slowly walk closer, making sure to stay in the light and the sight of the guards at the hole in the wall *Sailorcutter approaches and takes the papers inspecting them with his limited knowledge cannot find fault in them. Milo pleads his case, making it well known that that cost him a fortune, and pleads for his life. *Sailorcutter spares him *Milo heads toward the guards, but walks passed them further into Brightwater *Immeral fey steps into the tavern to search for wealth *He finds the strongbox behind the bar. He attempts to take it, but it is attached to the shelf it is on. *He attempts to pick it and fails. After some consideration, decides to use his flame longsword to forcefully remove the shelf. He succeeds in removing the box, but sets the shelf on fire. And fortunately grabs a vessel of water and puts out the flames. *Immeral smashes out the reinforced bedroom window as a message, and hands the strongbox to Sailorcutter who also could not open it *They decide to pay the Dwarf a visit. They walk up to the innkeeper and intimidate her into giving them the room where the dwarf is staying. She requests that they not make a mess in her inn *Immeral opens his door quietly, but the Dwarf is highly aware (critical perception) and sits straight up in bed, swinging his hammer wildly *The two elflike approach him, they explain that they are ready to venture out on the morrow. additionally they ask him to open the strongbox, which he fails. They leave it with him to carry. *They make plans to meet at the docks before setting out and leave the dwarf to return to sleep. Retrieving the Honorable Executioner and Regrouping *Immeral and Sailorcutter return to the dock and venture out in their lifeboat back to their ship *When they get there, Jackbrass is in an autonomous state, and seems joyed (in his own way) of their return. They hoist anchor and make their way into port. Davic directs them to the location on the docks for them to dock the ship. *Jackbrass stays on the ship and Immeral Climbs down. Sailorcutter climbs onto the railing, turns backward and leaps into a backflip. He narrowly keeps his footing as he crashes onto the dock. Davic seems somewhat impressed. *He greets them, making few comments about the state of their ship and asks for their papers. When Sailorcutter hands them to him, he briefly looks at them before blindly handing them backward to Dipshit, leaving him to handle it. *The group asks if he can inspect the damage to the ship. He climbs aboard, and makes comments about the burned out deck, and the broken mast as then continue below deck. *He notices the disassembled partition wall, and finally the patchwork on the hullbreach. He says that the repairs are doable, the breach will need to be removed, and replaced. The mast will require a sizable chuck of lumber, and the deck is simple. *He figures itll take about a fortnight and 750 gold. *They agree to pay part now, and part later. Paying him 300gp. Davic leaves them to make the arrangements. *After a short time the dwarf returns, and decides to stay behind and observe to the repairs *Sailorcutter and Immeral decide to check out the pub at the docks. It smells of unwashed old sailors and vomit. *No one notices when they enter. *They approach the bartender, buy some drinks and ask about any available labor. The bartender is less than helpful, and quickly dismisses them *A Half-Orc overhears their conversation and approaches them. He introduces himself as Landark Silvertongue and mentions that he knows about the raid that occured yesterday, and that they were responsible for handling it. *He makes mention that he is quite knowledgable of the surrounding lands and asks to join their adventuring party. *Immeral and Sailorcutter think he may be of use to them, and they agree to employ him for mutual gain. The Dire Wood The Deceitful Saytr *The party travels north into the forest *They find the path that the goblins left behind and follow it for the remainder of the day with Landark leading the way making successful nature checks *The group makes camp and sleeps for the night in shifts *First thing in the morning the party picks up the trail where they left off *After a short time travelling they hear a noise off the path that appears to be people shouting in the common tongue *Landark approaches by jumping tree to tree until he fails and falls almost all the way to the ground *Meanwhile Sailorcutter sneaks along at a similar pace *At this close range they can hear one being asking for help and see a saytr looking for something to assist them in a clearing *Sailorcutter approaches and offers to help for a fee *It appears that the other saytr has fallen down a well and has been injured *Sailorcutter produces a rope and helps the first saytr in an attempt to pull the other up *After a few failed attempts Sailorcutter suggests that the saytr in the well should attach his equipment to the rope to make him lighter *After many failed attempts Sailorcutter says he may be able to find help and returns to the woods to find Immeral *With Immeral’s assistance it goes better but they still fail repeatedly *Suddenly the saytr pushes Immeral into the well *Immeral manages to grab on to the ledge and doesn’t fall in *Sailorcutter attacks the saytr and Landark jumps out of a tree and attempts to roll but lands on his face and hurts himself *Immeral dropped a torch to see the bottom of the well, jumped part way down and then feystepped the remaining distance to land safely at the bottom *The saytr in the clearing attempts to grab sailorcutter and throw him in the well several times *Landark attacks with his bow and arrow, does some damage and also hits Sailorcutter *Immeral discovers that the saytr in the well was not injured at all and they began to fight *Immeral easily dispatches the saytr in the well *Meanwhile, Sailorcutter is thrown into the well and is injured *Landark eventually manages to push the remaining saytr into the well and Sailorcutter restrains him The Minotaur Labyrinth *The party splits up, after attaching a couple of ropes together as an escape route *Landark decides to climb back into his tree and wait for the others to return *Immeral cuts the horn off the dead saytr to use as a call for help *Sailorcutter and Immeral travel through the opening at the base of the well in the direction dennis… which is apparently east *They carry the living saytr on their shoulders while Sailorcutter leads and Immeral keeps a hand on the right wall of the tunnel so they don’t get turned around *Eventually, they encounter some traps *Sailorcutter falls into a pit and gets hurt, he fails on his first attempt to escape and is hurt further before he climbs out on his second try *Immeral passes the saytr over the pit and simply jumps over it *They travel for some time *They encounter a swinging scythe trap which injures Immeral badly and knocks him down. *Sailorcutter manages to disable it after a couple of attempts *They continue to travel through the labyrinth *Immeral notices a control panel of a magical artillery trap and Sailorcutter is able to disable it *After traveling for a long time they enter a hallway with a light at the end of it *They sprint into the room and Sailorcutter uses a cloud of darkness to conceal the party *There is a minotaur in the room and he demands to know who has entered *Sailorcutter bluffs and convinces the minotaur that he was only there to see if the minotaur was as big and powerful as he had heard and offered the saytr as a gift *When the minotaur was distracted Sailorcutter shot a crossbow bolt and missed, then Immeral threw a javelin and missed *The minotaur charged into the cloud of darkness but he also missed because of the cloud of darkness *Sailorcutter ran around the minotaur to flank him and attacked again, missing. *Immeral hit the minotaur but when the minotaur hit him back he was gravely injured *They decided to attempt an escape and managed to get away up a ladder down a hallway on the far side of the room *They ended up in a clearing in the woods and blew their horn to be found by Landark *Once reunited the group took a rest Barrow of the Ogre King *The party returned to the trail left by the goblins and continued towards the barrow *They reached an open clearing with an overgrown courtyard with a dwarven statue face with an opening *Immeral criticaled perception to find that there was a false floor in the center of the courtyard and a hidden entrance on the far side *They enter and climb down a ladder *At the base of the ladder is a hallway with a dead end, Sailorcutter finds a hidden door and sneaks into the next room *Immeral attempts to sneak after him but is detected *They are attacked by a party of goblins but are able to handle most of them *Immeral walks towards the centre of the room and the floor begins to fall out beneath him, he is able to jump away and there are a group of vicious dogs underneath *The party kills the remaining goblins and throws their corpses in the pit of dogs *At the end of the room there is a 10ft diameter disk which is a couple inches thick, Landark knows that this was used by an ancient dwarven culture to travel instantaneously throughout their empire *Landark decides to bring this massive artifact with them and rolls it along with him *They exit down a hallway and Sailorcutter sneaks ahead in the lead *Once partway down the hall a goblin skull-cleaver and several dwarven zombies came into view *Landark rolled the disk at the goblin and knocked him over *Sailorcutter was knocked unconscious and while Landark killed the goblin and Immeral led the zombies back to the dog pit *Landark stabilized Sailorcutter and the dogs were killed by the zombies *Immeral killed the remaining zombie *The party barricaded themselves in the room where the goblin was hiding and took an extended rest *Afterward they descended the staircase and opened the double doors. *Inside the large room were several goblin warriors, an archer and a hexer who seemed to be ready for them. At the far corner of the room, there was a pit that fell away into a large pit that had a spiral staircase. *Immeral, Sailorcutter, and Landark made considerable progress in the battle *Landark attached a rope to an arrow, and while blinded, manages to lodge it into the hexer. Then he pulled the rope causing the hexer to fall into the chasm. The rope slid most of the way out until he grabbed hold and the arrow ripped free. *The hexer fell for a short moment before hitting the bottom with a audible thud *On his way to finish of the last goblin, Immeral steps onto another disk similar to the one from before and disappears. (He appears in a silvery plane that seems endless, he decides to meditate) *In protest Landark maneuvers the previous disk onto it, and it promptly disappears in the same fashion *Sailorcutter and Landark finish off the rest and proceed to loot the nearby room which contained some wealth *Eventually Immeral reappears on the disk and quickly shifts off *After a short break, they proceed down the chasm stairs *When they reach the bottom, they can see the splattered goblin hexer corpse in the center of the large room, there is a large door on the North wall *Upon entering it they see a clay encrusted sarcophagus and a shaman standing over it *He isn't immediately hostile, and asks what they're doing there, claims its sacred ground and demands they leave *Little conversation occurs before they attack *As the battle rages, the shaman continually tries to blind them and set them on fire. *Eventually as the shaman is clinging to life Immeral and Landark are felled, but Sailorcutter manages to finish him off *They heal up and open the carcophagus which contains large human-like skeleton remains, of which the skull is inscribed with a blood-red filigree and is set as the headpiece of a crude mace *This is the skull totem *They make their way out of the barrow, and setup camp a sizable distance from the entrance ''''Return to Brightwater Regrouping and Investigation *The group makes their way out of the barrow and returns to town with the artifact to regroup with their companions. *After discussion about recent events, they decide to return to Curuvar for more information *All five (Immeral, Sailorcutter, Jackbrass, Hammershield and Landark) decide to wait for him at the Tankard *Upon arrival, Sailorcutter approaches Milo for a drink who seems startled when he notices. Sailorcutter asks only for a drink before going to his corner to meditate menacingly, Jackbrass stands near him *The rest of the group sits at a table and makes small talk. Getting to know the newer members slightly better *After a short time Calla, arrives at the tavern and asks to sit with them *He makes it known that he's aware of their adventures in the local area, and asks for thier help. They agree to hear him out *Calla tells them that recently a tiefling names Narrows has been coming by to force 'protection' on him from the Lady of Shadow threatening him for refusal. He also believes that many of the other shopkeepers in town are under the same 'protection' *They agree to look into it for monetary gain, and Calla says that he expects that the other shopkeeps would likely be quite thankful and gather some compensation *They ask Milo about it, and he seems to suggest that someone at the pub may have more information. *Sailorcutter and Jackbrass go to investigate. *In the pub they find a human, with one hand and one eye. And after some intimidation they get out of him that he was a former criminal who was approached by the Lady of Shadow's men, and asked to join, when he refused they maimed him. *He gave them directions to where he's almost certain the lair is. *While they're gone Curuvar shows up at the tankard and promptly sits down with the group after getting a drink. *He asks how they made out in the barrow. They show him the skull totem, and he seems impressed at their capabilities. And he tells them about the so called Ogre King **Apparently he was no Ogre but actually an Oni, who was using the barrow to live in while he studied the Dire Wood, and although the goblins revered him, he was actually just using them as fodder **They were foolish, and the resurrection which they were attempting culd only end in failure *When Sailorcutter and Jackbrass return they discuss their options, and decide to tackle the lair and takedown the gang The Lair of Shadow *They make their way to the run-down tenement in the southeast corner of town under the cover of night *Sailorcutter peers into the window and notices that the house appears to be an empty shell, with a staircase littered in garbage that appears to lead to the basement *He decides to open the window to gain entry. Opening it so quickly and quietly that his party members aren't even sure that it was ever even closed. *He enters alone and travels down the stairs, it is lit at the bottom but comes to a door. *The drow moves back upstairs and motions for his party to follow. *The door opens into a long hallway with two large doors at the far end *Sailorcutter move swiftly across the corridor, but before he gets too far the floor falls away, dropping him 10 feet into ankle deep acid *He attempts to climb back up but loses grip on the smooth wall and falls back into the pit *His companions toss him a rope and gather up on the rope to support it. Jackbrass manages to pull Sailorcuter up and the fest of his party off their feet. *Immeral fey steps across the pit *Landark believes he's seen a trap like this before and is certain there is a control panel located nearby, but no one is able to locate it. *They attempt to cross by stringing up a rope across. Sailorcutter makes it across first, joining Immeral and they agree to send Jackbrass across while they have equal strength on both sides *He manages to get half way across, but when he tries to make it the rest of the way, his companions cannot hold and they drop him into the pit. *They pull the rope back up, damaging about half of it, they cut the damaged half off before trying again *The rest make it across by bracing a javelin in the doorway, then pull Jackbrass back out. *Inside are many human gang members, the tiefling Narrows, an elf archer, and a shadow like figure who they assume is the Lady of Shadow *During the fight Jackbrass flips the large table, killing one of the gang members and pinning the archer *They slaughter the humans and change targets to the others *They attempt to knock the Lady of Shadow unconscious, but she explodes in a cloud of darkness *The party makes quick work of the remaining members *Upon searching the lair they find some gold and some cages *Inside one of the cages Landark notices a message scratched into it, which makes asks for help, they someone is being slaves, and they are being taken to Zelbross ruins *They also find a staircase that leads to a narrow passageway that takes them about a half mile east of Brightwater, they take the corpse of Narrow with them as proof *Upon returing to town they decide to rest. All but Hammershield stay on the Honourable Executioner, storing his corpse in the brig *In the morning they goto the general store to show Calla *They toss his corpse on the floor infront of him, and he's startled, but seems relieved that they were successful *The group asks for compensation, to which Calla says he will make known what they've done, and will collect from the other shopkeepers. Bandit Slavers *They ask Calla if he knows anything about a slave ring in town, he says that there has been some bandit activity nearby, harassing merchants on the western road. **They are rumored to be hold up in the zelbross ruins about a days travel west of Brightwater **He encourages him them to ask Zark (a dockhand) about it, as he had a run in with them and was nearly killed *While this is hapenning, Landark decides to go talk to Lady Moonfire. Upon reaching her house, he asks a guard to meet with her, and while the guard is inside getting her, Landark gets nervous and leaves *They group then decides to go see Zark at the docks, but cannot find him *They ask Davic, who says that he knows Zark, but he's not working at the moment, as he usually helps with unloading cargo. But he is expecting a merchant ship that evening and its likely that Zark will be working that evening. *While they're standing around talking, Lady Moonfire (a human female), her assistant (a tall Tiefling with a shrunken horn) and a small detachment of guards approach. One of the guards make a motion toward Landark, and Moonfire nods. *She approaches the group and greets them before asking Landark what he was asker for her for. *He quickly difuses the situation. Moonfire proceeds to give the adventurers great thanks for dealing with the Lady of Shadow. *The group then asks if she knows anything about slavers nearby. *She asks her assistant and he flips through his clipboard before nodding in agreement, she says children have been going missing from the city and some nearby farms. She is not sure who is behind it. *The group relays their suspicion that the Zelbross bandits may be involved and ask if she has any information on them. She says that she only knows that the Zelbross ruins are to the west, but not exactly sure on their location and to ask Zark about it as he had a run in with them. *Immeral asks if there are any horses they could use, and Moonfire says there is a stable in the Northeast part of town, she'll send word to let them use their horses. *They conclude, and Moonfire bids them adieu. *The group decides to investigate the knife shop in town *En route Calla approaches them, and says that shes told all the other merchants that Narrows will not be harassing them anymore. They have pooled a gift for them, and she hands a pouch filled with gold (about 300gp) to Immeral, again expressing a great deal of gratitude. They accept the gift and continue onward. *The far wall of the knife shop is decorated with many blades, when they enter the owner raises a brow and lookup up from talking to another customer and welcomes them to Starra's Knives *They ask about special blades, and she proceeds to show them many ornate blades, curved, straight, throwing, she has all kinds of short blades. *None of which strike Sailorcutter as being worth stealing, and they browse a short while before leaving. *They remember that the posses the strongbox stolen from Milo in the green tankard and decide to try opening it again. *In a back alley they proceed to attempt and pick the lock, but it evades all of their lockpicking skills and several of them break picks off inside the lock. (about 3 crit fails in a row guise). *At this point they forgo the route of finesse and try and smash it open with their weapons *After several attempts from much of the group, Immeral deals the final blow and it cracks open revealing what was left of Milo's wealth after he spent all his money on forged documents for them. *They don't even bother splitting it up amongst themselves before returing to the docks, where they notive that another ship is docked. *They ask Davic if one of the workers unloading cargo is Zark, and he points out the dwarf with several silver hilted daggers in his belt. *They approach and ask him about the Zelbross bandits, and he says he knows of them, but he's a little busy at the moment (unloading barrels). Jackbrass offers to takeover his duties while they talk to Zark. *He recalls his run-in with them, he was with a caravan that was ambushed by them, he was knocked unconscious during the fight, and they musn't have noticed. And he asks why. *The group relays that they suspect that theyre involved in a slave ring and they're going after them. Zark agrees to take them there, and vows vengence. *They agree to meet in the morning at the docks before heading out, and Zark goes back to work. *All but Hammersheild sleep aboard the Honorable Executioner, while he sleeps in the room he has at the Inn. *Early in the morning they meetup with Zark and head out. First stopping at the stables. They eventually let their horses go, but one of them notices Zark and the proceed to have an arguement. Through the yelling they group concludes that Zark and the stableboys are related and there is some judgement going on. *They notice that it is somewhat cooler out, and the sky is overcast. *They get 3 horses, although it's not quite enough to all ride, they head out Zark leading the way. *After most of a days worth of travel, when it is well after dark they reach the forest. Zark says it is a few more hours north before they reach Zelbross and they should rest the night. *They take up camp where they stand, leaving a few awake for watch. Not long after the winds pick up, thunder, lighting and rain wake all who were sleeping. *Drenched, they seek shelter, and Immeral(?) finds a small cave. Sailorcutter enters first and clears it before the others come inside. *They make a small fire, Jackbrass (who needs no sleep) Sailorcutter and Immeral take watch at the cave entrance. The two fey take turns meditating. *On Immeral's watch, he notices a large form moving throughout the wood during flashes of lightning, but he can't quite make out what it is. *He readies himself and reached for the horn, but before he can blow it, the beast is upon them. *It crashes into the cave sending Immeral and Jackbrass flying backward into the cave.